Church says Pell will return to face sex charges

By: The Associated Press

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SYDNEY (AP) — The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney says Vatican Cardinal George Pell will return to Australia to fight sexual assault charges as soon as possible.

The archdiocese statement released on his behalf said Pell “again strenuously denied all allegations” against him.

Victoria state police said earlier Thursday that Pell was being summonsed to face multiple charges of “historical sexual offenses,” meaning offenses that generally occurred some time ago. Pell was ordered to appear in court on July 18th.

The archdiocese statement says Pell “is looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously.”

Pell is planning to make a further statement in Rome later today.

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